The Odd Alliance Between Labor and Big Business on Immigration Reform

The last time Congress took up immigration reform, in 2007, the effort collapsed in part because the nation’s largest labor union and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce were at odds over granting foreign workers visas to fill low-skilled jobs. The chamber wanted to throw open the doors for guest workers to help businesses meet demand but insisted the workers be sent home when their visas expired. Unions wanted to keep the number of visas low to prevent foreigners from displacing U.S. workers. Leaders on both sides were “going around in Congress trying to stab the other side in the back,” says Demetrios Papademetriou, president of the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan immigration think tank.

So Chamber of Commerce President Tom Donohue and AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka stunned observers of the issue when they sent out a “Joint Statement of Shared Principles” on Feb. 21, declaring they’d overcome many of their differences. “We have found common ground in several important areas, and have committed to continue to work together and with Members of Congress to enact legislation that will solve our current problems in a lasting manner,” they wrote.